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Dfcu top executive in panic over Cosase appearance

Mr. Jimmy Mugerwa, the board chairman of Dfcu bank who is accused by some shareholders for the bank's poor management.

Reports coming in indicate that Dfcu Bank’s Chairman board of directors, Jimmy Mugerwa and outgoing Managing Director, Juma Kisaame, are afraid of appearing before parliament’s Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (Cosase) which has started quizzing Bank of Uganda (BoU) top officials over seven defunct banks, including Global Trust Bank and Crane Bank (CBL) which Dfcu Bank bought.

Cosase’s decision to call BoU top officials for answers follows the August 27th release of the Auditor General’s special audit of BoU on seven commercial banks. The investigation of BoU was ordered by the same committee, following outcries by some of the former owners of the defunct banks.

Among others, Cosase is mandated to ex­am­ine the re­ports and au­dited ac­counts of statu­tory au­thor­i­ties, cor­po­ra­tions and pub­lic en­ter­prises and in the con­text of their au­ton­omy and ef­fi­ciency, as­cer­tain whether their op­er­a­tions are be­ing man­aged in ac­cor­dance with the re­quired com­pe­tence and where ap­plic­a­ble, in ac­cor­dance with sound busi­ness prin­ci­ples and pru­dent com­mer­cial prac­tices.

In his report, the Auditor General John Muwanga pointed out that not all principles/guidelines and regulations were followed as BoU transferred the assets and liabilities of Global Trust Bank and CBL DFCU Bank, as well as other dealing that saw other banks like Teefe Bank, International Credit Bank Limited, Greenland Bank, The Cooperative Bank and National Bank of Commerce liquidated and sold off.

Inside sources say Mugerwa is planning to fly out of the country in a bid to avoid appearing before the committee that has started its work by first calling BoU Governor Prof. Emmanuel Tumusiime-Mutebile and his deputy Dr Louis Kasekende. Tumusiime-Mutebile and Kasekende are also BoU’s board chairman and Vice Chairman, respectively.

The committee intends to call other individuals including other top officials from BoU, shareholders of defunct banks as well as the board members and managers of DFCU Bank to answer some queries as raised in the Auditor General’s report.

Meanwhile, Britain’s Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC) Group, one of the corporate shareholders of Dfcu Bank has urged managers at DFCU Bank to desists from negative media publicity aimed at haunting former owners of one of the banks they bought at Shs200 billion, not cash, but paid in installments.

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Who will bail Ugandans out of the current security situation?

By Nabendeh Wamoto

Which airport/airstrip do we see the recently sacked flying squad landing in?
As a country, we have and continue to unleash to staggering numbers unspeakable, unmonitored armed groups (Iraqi, Afghanistan, Crime Preventers e.t.c.), putting our national security in danger.

Here below are two cases to explain the country’s security situation. We have all probably heard the story of the Frog and the Scorpion. The Scorpion which could not swim one day came down to the edge of the fast moving stream and noticed a Frog sitting there.
“Would you be willing to give me a ride on your back across this stream’’ asked the Scorpion.
“Do you take me for a fool?’’. That no sooner would I get mid-stream than you would sting me?’’ the Frog replied. “now why would I do that?’’. The Scorpion asked. “if I stung, we would both drown.’’ The frog thought for a moment and decided that the Scorpion actually made sense.

So he let the scorpion climb aboard and began swimming across the stream. Half way out, the scorpion jabbed the Frog with a vicious sting. As they both floundered in the fast moving water, the Frog gasped “you fool why did you do that?”. Now we are both going to drown. “I know”, the scorpion answered sheepishly as he sank beneath the surface. But you see I can’t help it. It is just my hopeless nature said the scorpion.

A Southern Californian newspaper, several years ago had carried the following article “a young man who lived in the Western States had never done anything (criminally) wrong. But one day while playing a game of cards (Matatu), he lost his temper picking up a revolver; he aimed, shot and killed his opponent. The young man was arrested, tried and sentenced to hang. Because of the innocent life history he had previously lived, his relatives, friends and clerics got up a petition for him. It seemed as though everyone was eager to sign it. Before long other municipalities, town and villages had heard about it, and people all over the place endorsed the petition. At last it was taken to the governor who happened to be a staunch Christian also and tears came to his eyes as he looked at the large baskets filled with petitions. The governor decided to pardon the young man.

The governor having written the pardon, put it in his pockets and camouflaged in a clergyman’s garb and made his way to the maximum prison as he (governor) approached the condemn cell, the young prisoner sprang to the bars. “Get out of here” he yelled, “I don’t want to see you”. I have had enough of religion at home and seven of your kinds have visited me already”. But intervened the governor “wait for a moment young man, I have something for you, allow me talk to you”. “Listen” exclaimed the young man in anger” if you don’t get out of here now, I will call the guards to force you out”. As the garbed governor went away, the prison warden then came in to the young man telling him that the departing man was actually the governor who had come to pardon him.

The day came for the young man to die. “is there anything you want to say before you die?” yes he answered. “Tell all the young men in America that I am not dying because of a crime, not because I am a murderer. The governor pardoned me.
I am dying because I was arrogant, adamant and did not give a chance to the pardon”.
Should Ugandans also wait until it is too late?

Nabendeh Wamoto S.P (0776-658433)
simonwamoto@yahoo.co.uk

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Half of Uganda’s parents do not speak to anyone about problems they face at school-study shows

Parent walking children to school.

Half of Ugandan parents (46 per cent) do not speak to anyone about problems they identify at their children’s schools. If parents do report problems they see, they tend to speak to proximate school leaders rather than people in government.

Parents mention head teachers (26 per cent), School Management Committees (17 per cent) and teachers (10 per cent).

Further, 8 out of 10 parents do not do anything about the problems in the education sector beyond reporting them. Previous Sauti za Wananchi findings have shown that citizens claim they are more likely to take action in education than other sectors.

When parents do report an issue, they are met with limited response. Around 1 out of 10 say the problem was solved completely (7 per cent), three out of 10 say it was partially solved (32 per cent) and the rest, six out of ten, say the problem was not solved at all (61 per cent).

The findings were released by Twaweza on Thursday in a research brief titled, ‘Preparing the Next Generation: Ugandans’ opinions and experiences on education’. The brief is based on data from Sauti za Wananchi, Africa’s first nationally representative high-frequency mobile phone survey. The findings are based on data collected from 1,878 respondents across Uganda in September and October 2018.

Main problem facing children’s school

When asked to name the main problem facing their child or children’s school, however, more parents name school contributions than any other issue for both primary (14 per cent) and secondary (23 per cent) schools. The second most reported issue is distance (12 per cent both for primary and secondary schools). Parents report paying for tuition / extra classes (68 per cent), food items (60 per cent), school books / materials (58 per cent) and construction (57 per cent).

Citizens’ engagement with schools

Nonetheless, citizens are engaging with schools. One out of three have asked for financial information from their local school (34 per cent), although men are more likely than women (38 per cent vs. 30 per cent) and rural residents are more likely than urban citizens (36 per cent vs. 30 per cent) to do so. In more than half of such cases, citizens were able to find some financial information on display.

Awareness of capitation grant

On school finances, however, half of citizens (57 per cent) are familiar with the capitation grant (41 per cent aware, 16 percent aware after probing). And even more citizens cannot name any item that the Capitation Grant is used for (59 per cent) while only 2 per cent say they know the amount of the grant. Among these the responses range from Shs300 to Shs3 million per pupil. The Capitation Grant may help to reduce some of the burden of contributions on parents.

Whether citizens are fulfilling responsibilities in school governance

The findings show that citizens are also fulfilling their responsibilities in school governance: 1 out of 10 report being members of school committees (10 percent) and almost all of the citizens claim to be active participants.

Knowledge on who should be on school management committees

The research established that parents have some knowledge about how school committees function, who is supposed to be a member and the type of issues committees are supposed to work on, ideally and in practice.

Half of citizens have seen a teacher out of school during school hours (47 per cent). Half of them (24 per cent) report having approached the absent teacher to raise the issue. “The most popular reason given for not approaching the teacher was the fear of negative repercussions (42 per cent of those who did not speak to the teacher directly mentioned this). Parents do see teacher attendance as the primary responsibility of the school or head teacher (63 per cent),” says the report.

School values and learning of pregnant girls

When it comes to school values, citizens hold emphatic views. Almost all citizens (94 per cent) want girls who get pregnant to continue with their education whether after giving birth (74 per cent), during pregnancy (13 per cent), or in another school (7 per cent). And this appears to be a far-reaching problem: four out of ten citizens (35 per cent) know of a family member who dropped out of school due to pregnancy. Among these, half are now housewives (51 per cent), 14 per cent are unemployed and 12 per cent are back in school.

Citizens’ views on boys who impregnate girls

When it comes to the male students who impregnate school girls however, citizens are tougher: half want them to continue in their school while the remainder want them to be punished either by transferring to another school (30 percent), being expelled (16 percent) or being arrested / imprisoned (6 percent).

Citizens’ views on schools that cheat exams

Citizens are similarly tough on schools found to be cheating in national exams. Citizens think these schools should be closed down (37 per cent), those involved should be punished (20 per cent), or arrested (11 per cent) or schools should have their results cancelled and be required to repeat exams (11 per cent).

Citizens’ views on schools that perform poorly

When it comes to schools that perform poorly, one out of ten (14 per cent) think this should be an offense punishable by closure but many more think teachers or head teachers should be transferred (31 per cent).

“This may be because the majority of citizens cite high exam pass rates (80 per cent) as the most important factor informing their school choice. The second most popular quality, and the only other one named by more than half of citizens, is motivated teachers (69 per cent),” says the report on the research findings.

Marie Nanyanzi of Sauti za Wananchi at Twaweza at the release of the findings in Kampala said: “Despite many saying they don’t report problems they see at schools, Ugandans are engaged in the education sector. However, these findings throw up three important challenges. First is the issue of contributions at school and relatedly the Capitation Grant.”

Ms. Nanyanzi said there is no clear information on the amount of this grant and what it should be used for, or for how contributions are supposed to be collected and managed. This can lead to confusion, mismanagement and can undermine the free primary education policy.

“Citizens seem more willing to approach local school leadership, who are close to citizens’ lives rather than with responsibility for how the system works overall. Head teachers and teachers are named across the board as responsible for financial management, teacher attendance and challenges faced by parents,” she said.

She said that when parents find that the problems they report are not or are partially resolved, it discourages them. “When most parents who report problems find these are not or only partially resolved, this may discourage anyone who wants to report in the future,” she said, calling on the government to invest more into explaining the Capitation Grant and its uses, and into complaint reporting and handling procedures.

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FUFA bans match officials after Express vs Vipers errors

Referee Kirangwa Ronald who was in charge of the game

Uganda football governing body FUFA has today banned match officials following controversy around Tito Okello’s equalizer in the 1-1 draw between Vipers and Express at Wankulukuku.

Okello’s strike late on came after Tony Odur had given the Red Eagles the lead from a spot kick and Daniel Sserunkuma missed a penalty for Vipers.
The result helped Vipers stretch their unbeaten run to 24 league games and moved to 15 points, same as KCCA’s.

Fufa released the statement on their website: “This is to notify all stakeholders that, upon the advice of the Referees Disciplinary Panel and the FUFA Referees Standing Committee, FUFA has banned three officials of match number 54 of the StarTimes Uganda Premier League played on Wednesday 7th November 2018 at Muteesa II Stadium – Wankulukuku.
Decisions:-

The 2nd Assistant Referee Mr. Kakembo Samuel is banned from performing refereeing services of all FUFA organised and sanctioned Competitions for a period of 5 years.
The Centre Referee Mr. Kirangwa Ronald is banned from performing refereeing services of all FUFA organised and sanctioned Competitions for a period of 3 years.

The 1st Assistant Referee Ms. Nantabo Lydia Wanyama is banned from performing refereeing services of all FUFA organised and sanctioned Competitions for a period of 60 days.

The 3 match officials (Centre Referee, 1st Assistant and 2nd Assistant) have been forwarded to FUFA Committee for Match Integrity for further investigation and decision.
The above decisions take immediate effect.

It is Our Game, It is Our Country”

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Activist Ben Ssebuguzi kidnapped , police denies his whereabouts

Ben Ssebuguzi

The Secretary General of the Uganda Poor Youth Movement, Ben Ssebuguzi is reported to have been kidnapped from his work place by unknown armed men.

According his workmate, Ssebuguzi was aggressively picked by men purporting to be working for Bank of Uganda. He said, their colleague was harassed, beaten as he pleaded for mercy. His colleague allege that a certain ‘official’ at the central bank should be held liable for anything that is likely to happen to Ssebuguzi.
Eagle Online understands that Ssebuguzi was picked on allegation that he could have been responsible for throwing piglets in front of BoU.
“We have searched all detention centres and police has denied any knowledge of his where about. Uganda is becoming unsafe with these unwarranted arrests and torture,” said.

Ssebuguzi is an activist who has been at the forefront fighting and advocating against corruption and promoting social justice, “The corrupt and despicable officers strive to silence prominent people especially those who stand for truth and justice,” he said.

He called on Ugandans to provide information about their colleague’s where about saying his family is in fear their relative might have been killed by the perpetrators.

“We are greatly convinced that he is being tortured or killed, help us to recover him or his body for a decent burial,”

According to Kampala metropolitan police Spokesperson Luke Owoyesigire, that case has not been reported and called on his relatives and work mates to cooperate with police to establish his whereabouts.

The incident proceeds the recent scenario where a civilian Yunus Kawooya who was brutally arrested by five armed men and whisked him off to anonymous place using a commuter tax. He later released on police bond.

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Centenary Bank, Christ the King Parish dragged to court over financial fraud

Centenary Bank, which started as Centenary Rural Development Trust Limited and Christ the King Parish are in trouble for allegedly de-registering one of the minority shareholders, the late businessman Robert Byaruhanga who died in 2001.

The plaintiff, who is the administrator of the late Byaruhanga’s estate, has dragged the bank (2nd defendant bank) and Christ the King Parish of Kampala Diocese (1st defendant), praying that court; declare the late Robert Byaruhanga a member and shareholder of Centenary Rural Development Bank (CRDB) Limited; that the defendants’ actions are oppressive to the late Robert Byaruhanga as a minority shareholder.

The plaintiff also wants court to issue an order directing that the late Robert Byaruhanga’s name be registered into CRDB’s members register. It also seeks special damages, general damages and that punitive measures be taken against CRDB and Christ the King Parish for their illegal actions. The suit also wants interest paid, cost of the suit be awarded and any other benefit deemed by the court.

The plaintiff believes top officials running the CRDB omitted the deceased’s name as member of CRDB Limited so as to benefit at his expense, a move he says is tantamount to a fraud and breach of trust. The plaintiff is also disturbed that he has never been informed about the affairs of the bank or given dividends and that he has been excluded from company meetings. He cries he has suffered inconvenience and loss.

According to the court document of which Eagle Online has accessed a copy, the late Robert Byaruhanga got the interest of buying shares in the then Centenary Rural Development Trust when in 1986, Kampala Archdiocese, a Roman Catholic Diocese of Uganda, invited its laity, who included the late Robert Byaruhanga, to acquire shares in the company that was under Christ the King Parish of Kampala Diocese.

The document shows that at the time of buying shares, the late Robert Byaruhanga was operating businesses under the names and style of Euroseas Trading and Dress Making and Rwere United Traders.

It says between 1987 and 1988, the late Robert Byaruhanga made different payments for different number of shares in the names of Euroseas Trading and Dressing Making Company, Rwere United Traders, Robert Byaruhanga, Asiimwe Resty, Besigye Michael, Fifi Byaruhanga, Remegius Byaruhanga and Bosco Byaruhanga. He was issued with receipts of about 4900 shares as well as acknowledgement certificates, according to the document that has annexes.

“Upon the demise of the late Robert Byaruhanga in 2001 and upon grant of letters of administration the estate, the plaintiff approached the defendants to clarify the deceased’s stake in the second defendant bank (CRDB) but was told by the 1st defendants office administrator that the subject shares had been devalued and as such there are no known shares entitled to the plaintiff…or the estate of the late Robert Byaruhanga at all,” part of the suit reads.

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Uganda in pool C as draws for safari sevens are held

Uganda rugby 7s in action in 2018 USA tournament

After a one-year absence, the rugby Safari 7s tournament returns in Kenya with twelve teams confirmed to participate in the two day event.

Uganda has been placed in group C alongside Portugal, Morans and Menengai Cream Homeboyz.
World Series core team Spain are among 12 teams that have confirmed participation in this year’s Safari Sevens. Spain, which finished 11th in the 2017/18 Sevens Series season, will be joined by Iberian neighbours Portugal, a former World Rugby Sevens Series core team.

Hosts Kenya will be represented by National Sevens Series champions Homeboyz, Shujaa and Morans.
The other teams heading to Nairobi include British sides Apache Sevens, Red Wailers and Samurai Sevens, South African side Cobras, Namibia and Burkina Faso, who are making their first appearance.

Kenya’s Shujaa are the defernding champions and have been grouped in Pool A alongside 2016 Africa Men’s Sevens silver medalists Namibia, United Kingdom’s Apache and Kenyan side Stanbic Mwamba who finished second overall at the Kenyan Stanbic Bank National Sevens Circuit in September.

The tournament will run from 10th to 11th November 1018 at the RFUEA Ground in Nairobi, Kenya.
The Safari Sevens is an annual rugby sevens tournament held in Nairobi, Kenya. The competition is open to international representative sides, professional and amateur clubs, invitational teams, university and school teams.

Pools:
Pool A: Shujaa, Namibia, Apache, Stanbic Mwamba
Pool B: Spain, Samurai, Red Wailers, Emerging Uganda
Pool C: Portugal, Uganda, Morans, Menengai Cream Homeboyz

Uganda fixtures on Saturday, 10 November 2018:
Uganda v Morans: 10.44am
Uganda v Menengai Cream Homeboyz: 1.44pm
Portugal v Uganda: 5.06pm

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Uganda concludes verification exercise of all refugees

Minister Onek reading the findings at Media Centre.

Uganda has concluded a comprehensive exercise of verify the identities of all refugees and asylum-seekers in the country.

With support of UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, verification exercise was contacted in various refugee host communities in the country peddled at confirming the number of refugees and asylum-seekers registered in Uganda and enhancing the quality of data and improving assistance management and the overall support for refugees

According to the Minister of Relief, Disaster Preparedness and Refugees, Hillary Onek said the number of refugees and asylum-seekers registered by the government as of the March 1, 2018 was 1,444,856 individuals.

He said, by the end of the verification exercise 1,092,213 individuals had been verified as present representing 76 per cent of the initial target.

“Since March this year, 62,139 new arrivals mainly from the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan were registered, bringing the active registered population in Uganda to 1,154,352 individuals as of end of October. These objectives were achieved through the completion of the verification exercise and the roll out of the advanced biometric registration system,” he said.

He said, government of Uganda has one of the most progressive refugee policies, allowing refugees and asylum-seekers to live in gazette refugee settlements and exercise freedom of movement and settlement within the country.

“Government has provided a grace period of two months within which any registered refugee and asylum-seeker who missed the exercise, can approach OPM for verification. Taking this into consideration, the above verification numbers are preliminary. A more detailed analysis will be undertaken after the grace period,”

He said the difference between the initial verification target stands at 352,643 individuals, 255,490 individuals were verified as inactive and closed for the following reasons:

a) 158,533 individuals whose whereabouts are unknown as reported by family members;

b) 34,174 were reported by their families to have returned to their countries of origin;

c) 9,481 were identified to have registered more than once; e) 3,931 were reported deceased;

f) 1,489 were closed as they were Ugandan nationals; and (g) a verification exercise by OPM in April 2018 confirmed the urban refugee population to be 55,812.

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AfDB, partners launch first-ever Co-Guarantee Platform

Officials at the launch.

The African Development Bank (AfDB) and its partners have created the Co-Guarantee Platform for Africa, an innovative and collective de-risking instrument, to address the perceived high risk across the continent and the lack of capacity of traditional lenders to provide risk mitigation products for projects.

The platform is intended to increase the volume of insurance and guarantee solutions available to project sponsors and their bankers in a market-responsible manner. The objective is to mobilize greater amounts of investment that would otherwise not take place in the region in the absence of affordable risk mitigation products.

The Platform is expected to enhance the relevance of the respective institutions’ instruments in the region by implementing joint risk mitigation transactions.

Speaking about the Platform, Akinwunmi Adesina, President of the AfDB Group said, “There are many guarantee providers that can offer various types of credit enhancement and risk mitigation instruments in Africa, but cooperation among them has been either non-existent or on an ad-hoc basis. Hence the need for a more formal collaboration among guarantee providers to maximize the use of their products in Africa.

He said the four initial partners are financial institutions with strong experience operating on the continent, keen to participate in order to cooperate and create synergies with other development and commercial institutions in an effective and market-responsive manner. “The platform is open to more participants including official development institutions and the private sector,” he said.

The initiative will have a global outreach and aim at crowding in reluctant risk mitigation and credit enhancement providers across the world to make more projects happen in Africa- on more affordable terms for both African and foreign investors and lenders alike.

Dr. Bandar M. H. Hajjar, the President of the Islamic Development Bank Group, and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment & Export Credit (ICIEC), said that ICIEC, as a multilateral institution has a strong footprint in Africa with 23 member countries from within the continent, and has been actively mobilizing insurance and reinsurance capacity from the international market for Africa for the last 25 years.

He said ICIEC intends to avail its services, expertise and network to cooperate with the participants of the Co-Guarantee Platform, in order to structure collectively innovative risk mitigation solutions that will help to facilitate and mobilize funding capacity for medium and long tenor projects in Africa.

George Otieno, Chief Executive Officer of the African Trade Insurance Agency (ATI) said, “We welcome this initiative that was first suggested by the African Development Bank during the second meeting of the Abidjan Union held in 2017. As the membership of African states in ATI grows – in part thanks to the financial assistance of the African Development Bank – we believe that no single institution alone can provide the amount of risk mitigation required to catalyze Africa’s enormous infrastructure requirements”.

He said that while ATI already works closely with the private insurance market, the recent insurance transaction concluded among the Bank, ATI and the private reinsurance market to insure a portfolio of the Bank’s non-sovereign financial sector loans in Africa, demonstrates the powerful impact cooperation among institutions can have on bettering the availability and terms and conditions of insurance in the region.

Philippe Valahu, CEO, Private Infrastructure Development Group, said: “This initiative enables us to collaborate with institutions that share a similar vision as us; not only by recognising the deployment of capital and investment on the continent but, most importantly, by enabling local capital markets through risk mitigation solutions.”

He said the joint capacity, as created through the initiative, would result in more efficient information sharing, a better overview of risk across the continent and mobilisation of greater guarantee capacity.

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Uganda offers to host the 64th CPC next year

Speaker of Parliament of Uganda Rebecca Kadaga (L) and other delegates at CPA Executive Meeting in London.

Uganda will for the second time host the Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference (CPC) in September 2019, according to the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) Secretariat.

The conference will be hosted in Kampala under the theme: ‘Adaption, Engagement and Evolution in a rapidly changing Commonwealth’. The country first hosted the conference in 1967.

The conference is organised each year by the CPA but for this year it is been skipped. The 2017 CPC was held in Bangladesh. While Uganda’s neighbours Kenya and Tanzania have also in the past hosted the conference, with Kenya hosting it in 1954, 1983, 2010 while Tanzania were hosts in 2009.

However, the CPA Executive Meeting being attended in London by Speakers from Uganda Cameroon, Malta, Kenya, Lesotho, Zambezi among others has offered Uganda chance to host the 2019 conference. The Speaker of Parliament Uganda has been appointed President Designate 2018 to 2019.

During the CPC global political issues and developments in the parliamentary system are analysed in conference debates among leading parliamentarians representing parliaments and legislatures throughout the commonwealth.

The plenary conferences were biennial from 1948 to 1959 and annual since 1961. A summary of the main views expressed in the conference debates is sent to members, governments and international agencies.

The conference period also encompasses meetings of the General Assembly, the Executive Committee, small branches members, the commonwealth parliamentarians and meetings of Parliamentary Clerks and Secretaries (SOCATT).

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